The Day I Got Excited for Fall

Last Friday was a significant day...it was the first day that the weather was cold enough to warrant wearing my favorite leather jacket.  That jacket always gets me fired up for autumn.  As do cool evenings spent wandering around the city.  Wandering around the city on Friday evening checking out Fashion's Night Out in my leather jacket was just too much.  Bring on the apples and pumpkins, I'm ready for fall!

I met up with Zenia right after work and our first stop was the Ace Hotel to check out the ever exciting and cutting edge Opening Ceremony's version of a french flea market.  As we approached 29th Street, Broadway became increasingly congested with the hippest of the hipsters.  We wondered if perhaps the mayhem on the street was a line to get inside or the flea market itself.

Despite the t-shirts with french sayings splayed across the front being sold from booths on the street and the abundance of gourmet food trucks, it soon became clear that the crowd was vaguely formed into a massive line to get into the store inside the hotel.  Neither of us have much patience for lines, so Zenia and I took advantage of some of the excellent food on offer.  Frog leg sandwiches in hand, we sat perched on a low windowsill taking in the scene.

Presently we started to wander south (but I will definitely be returning for one of those Deyrolle scarves), encountering massive lines everywhere we went.  Soho was particularly congested as it seemed that every new freshman at NYU had put on their Friday best and converged on the neighborhood, with the Victoria's Secret store as ground zero.

But I had a destination in mind...The Rug Company.  I've been obsessed with this establishment ever since I found out that they carry pillows and rugs emblazoned with that iconic Vivienne Westwood union jack image.  The day that I have $500 to spend on a pillow I'm heading directly to The Rug Company to pick one up.   But I was headed there not to ogle expensive pillows but rather because I'd heard that Hamish Bowles, the legendary Vogue editor, would be making an appearance.

I beat my way through the crowds, passed the newly renovated Chanel store, turned onto blessedly quiet Wooster Street and came across the party I'd been hoping for all night.

Entertainment outside,

bubbly refreshments inside,

and new items to fall in love with.

Who knew Paul Smith had such a sense of whimsy with wall hangings?  I want one.

Mr. Bowles was in fact there.  Very dapper and very gracious.

Next year I'll have to give the uptown spots a try...